Industrial Ethernet Goes Process Automation...And What About Explosion Protection?

The industrial Ethernet technology is approaching the process automation applications. Since Ethernet is used in many other areas of automation already, however this is something quite new for process automation. In this presentation there should be no discussion of the advantages and disadvantages, the chances and threats or the pro´s and con´s. It is also not the intention to do an Ethernet seminar with this. We will focus on one very important specialty in process automation, the explosion protection. Although Ethernet may be industrialized, the usability of it for applications in this area typically requires some way of explosion protection measures. We will discuss the different options for the different types of media, copper cables, fiber optic cables and not to forget wireless and we will have a look at potential products and applications that may be suitable for Industrial Ethernet.